The chiefs added that they had now made several such treaties,
each of which established boundaries that were immediately broken, and
that indeed it had been their experience that after a treaty the whites
settled even faster on their lands than before. [Footnote: State
Department MSS., No. 56. Address of Corn Tassel and Hanging Maw, Sept.
5, 1786.] Just before this complaint was sent to Congress the same
chiefs had been engaged in negotiations with the settlers themselves,
who advanced radically different claims. The fact was that in this
unsettled time the bond of Governmental authority was almost as lax
among the whites as among the Indians, and the leaders on each side who
wished for peace were hopelessly unable to restrain their fellows who
did not. Under such circumstances, the sword, or rather the tomahawk,
was ultimately the only possible arbiter.
Treaties with Northwestern Indians.
The treaties entered into with the northwestern Indians failed for
precisely the opposite reason. The treaty at Hopewell promised so much
to the Indians that the whites refused to abide by its terms. In the
councils on the Ohio the Americans promised no more than they could and
did perform; but the Indians themselves broke the treaties at once, and
in all probability never for a moment intended to keep them, merely
signing from a greedy desire to get the goods they were given as an
earnest.
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